Published on 2004-04-28

Irene Bennett Kimball
Irene Bennett Kimball, 97, Bel Air, Md., died Sunday, April 18, 2004.

Father Robert Fellows will preside at a 10 a.m. service Saturday in Colonial Chapel with burial following in Fairfax in the Fairfax Cemetery at 12:30 p.m.

Services are under the direction of Colonial Chapel Funeral Home.

She was born Dec. 30, 1906, to William Ursena and Amy Isabella (Callahan) Bennett in Fairfax, Oklahoma Indian Territory. The Osage Indian rolls closed July 1, 1907, and she outlived all but two of her fellow 2,229 original allottees.

She grew up in Fairfax with her three brothers and two sisters, Teresa, Bill, Oliver, Isabel and Fairfax, who are all now deceased.

Her first marriage was to John Lester Bishop Jr. Monica Bishop Berry was born to them in 1924. She died in 2000.

Her second marriage was to Frank Kimball in 1933. They had two sons, Frank Bennett Kimball, born in 1934, now living in Hilton Head, S.C. and Thomas Roy Kimball, born in 1949, now living in Stillwater.

Her husband worked from 1934 to 1949 for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service in New Mexico, Colorado and Washington, D.C. In 1949, he joined the Export-Import Bank of Washington, D.C., traveling the world helping third world countries build infrastructure. He later was a consultant for Brown and Root Construction. He died in 1989.

She attended Oklahoma A&M for two years and graduated from New Mexico University with a degree in English literature.

She was a lifetime Republican and recently received her 75-year Kappa Alpha Theta pin from Beta Zeta Chapter.

She traveled extensively in Europe and South America. She was an accomplished artist working with stained glass, oil paintings and bronze sculpturing. She was a member of St. Andrews Episcopal Church.

She has seven grandchildren, James E. Berry of Stillwater, Frank Kimball Berry of Stillwater, Raymond Kimball of Florida, Rebecca Richardson of Maryland, Bill Kimball of Utah, Russell Kimball of Maryland and Mark Kimball of Maryland.